The Best (Easy) Pizza Recipe

Bet you can’t wait to get a pizza this action, eh? EH?!

Sorry, I’ll leave now.

Pizza: one of the greatest inventions of this world. I mean, who doesn’t love pizza? Don’t answer that, I’d want nothing to do with any deviant who doesn’t want to face-plant into a pile of dough-based cheese and tomato goodness at least four times a week.

In short, pizza = goooooood.

An Easy Pizza Recipe

As well as pizza tasting bloody great, it’s also an easy way of getting goodness into vegetable-dodging children. For one you have the tomato on top of the pizza itself, and if you’re crafty you can hide extra veg, like courgette, pureed into this sauce. Secondly, for some reason vegetables always taste better when scattered on top of a cheese base; my two will rarely eat things like sweetcorn or mushrooms, but call them a pizza topping and they’re suddenly the salad-worshipping love children of Annabel Karmel and the Body Coach.

Pizza from scratch can feel quite intimidating, but it shouldn’t be. There are three components: the dough, the sauce, and the toppings, but once you split it down into these three processes like in this recipe it really is as simple as you can get. In addition, if you make a big batch, it’ll last a week in the fridge so you really can face-plant into a pile of dough-based cheese and tomato goodness at least four times in seven days.

The dough uses a mix of strong white bread flour as well as ’00’ pasta flour, which gives the base its beautifully light and crispy texture. The sauce can be altered to suit your tastes (I threw a handful of fresh basil in mine this time around) and of course you can adjust the toppings depending on what you love.

My absolute favourite topping for my easy pizza recipe is garlic mushroom (mushrooms fried off on the hob with butter and garlic) and marscapone, though I’m also partial to capers, anchovies and a fried egg. Elfie loves chorizo slices on hers, and Hux plumps for the classic margarita every time.

I make my pizza dough in my food mixer with the dough hook and it’s a simple (if slightly messy) process, but it can be just as easily made kneading by hand. It can seem a bit of a ball-ache to let it rest for so long – three hours – but it’s really needed for the best crust. And if you can leave it overnight in the fridge even better, this will make it so much easier to roll out.

The sauce is super easy, too. Just a couple of cans of chopped tomatoes, a little tomato puree, seasoning and those hidden veg if you fancy. Throw the toppings in and bob’s your uncle – presto, an easy pizza recipe!

To save mess I pop my pizzas on a slice of baking parchment before sliding on to the pizza stone. It makes no difference with how they are cooked, yet saves scraping burned cheese of your stone when all you want to do is lie in front of Netflix rubbing your belly. What’s Italian for ‘happy tummy’?

Easy Pizza

Ingredients

Pizza Dough

Pizza Sauce

1cloveGarlicFinely chopped

2tinsChopped tomatoes

1 tspOregano

1tbspTomato puree

2tspSugar

Toppings

500gGrated mozarella

Instructions

Start by making your dough. Add the flour, sugar and salt to your mixing bowl, and in a bowl mix 200ml of warm water with the yeast and olive oil. Let it stand for 5 minutes before adding to the mixing bowl and starting to knead, whether that's with your food processor or by hand.

As you knead, slowly add the rest of the water in until the dough is kneadable but not sticky. If it crosses the line, add a little more flour to the mix.

Knead for 7 minutes.

Cover your bowl with a damp tea towel and leave somewhere warm to rise (I use my oven's warming drawer on its lowest setting - an airing cupboard would work just as well, or even the side in the kitchen).

After two hours knead the dough for a minute, re-cover and replace in the warm place. Leave for a further hour.

While your dough is getting ready, fry off your clove of garlic in olive oil. Add to this your tomatoes, oregano, tomato puree and sugar, and a pinch of salt to taste.

You can leave the sauce chunky if you'd like or otherwise puree to a tomato sauce consistency. Take off the heat and refrigerate til you're ready to use.

When you're ready to go, pre-heat your oven as hot as it will go: 260 degrees C is preferable.

Roll out a ball of your dough on a floury work surface (I use a rolling pin - it's not very 'Italian' but it works!). Get as thin as you can, but not so thin you can see your work surface through.

Using a spoon, scoop your tomato sauce on to the base and spread thinly. Add a layer of mozzarella on top, and your toppings on top of this.

Cook in the oven for around 5 minutes, or until the cheese bubbles and your dough is crispy.